


Riding the Storm

by TiaKisu



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-24 05:46:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19717429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiaKisu/pseuds/TiaKisu
Summary: "Paul's eyes were brilliant and alive and wild like the sea around them. Paul was in his element out here. And he was entirely beautiful like this. "A tiny snippet based on 30MinuteLoop's "The Navigator".





	Riding the Storm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DanceWithMeForScience](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DanceWithMeForScience/gifts).



> Obviously, I take no credit whatsoever for this pirate!AU because it's not my creation at all. This little snippet came to me and wouldn't let go anymore after I read 'The Navigator' by 30MinuteLoop, thus any and all credit goes to her. :) 
> 
> For once this is not proof-read, so I apologise for any mistakes I made.

Rain beat on his face and his body, drenching his clothes and making it even harder to maintain a tight grip on the wheel. His arms already ached from trying to fight the angry current and the storm, and for the first time in many years Hugh truly worried about getting out of this alive.

Around him the winds howled with sheer fury, thunder rolled menacingly and lightning tore through the skies. He had long ago lost all orientation and by now just blindly tried to keep the ship above water.  
  
“Hugh!” Paul's call barely made it through the onslaught of sound, but when his pale face appeared right next to him he at last could make out the words. “We have to take her starboard.”  
  
Paul was shouting at the top of his voice and there was an urgency in what he said that Hugh couldn't immediately place.  
  
“But this will take us deeper into the storm,” he argued, allowing his gaze to shift minutely and assess the condition of his ship and crew. All hands were on deck. Any loose barrels and other equipment had already been tied to the mast or the reeling, and the sails reefed. Discovery was being tossed about by the waves and there was little else his crew could do save hold on and make sure no one went overboard. “I don't know how much longer we can hold out.”

“The only way out is through!”  
  
Hugh almost couldn't believe what he heard Paul say.  
  
“This is madness, Paul,” he screamed against the raging storm, for once doubting the man he had fallen hard for the very moment he first saw him.  
  
“There is a shelf not far from here. We've drifted too far East. Discovery will run onto ground if we don't change direction now.”  
  
Hugh froze. This would mean certain death. But how could Paul know where they were? Hugh believed himself to be quite a skilled sailor and captain, but even he was utterly lost. Other than when lightning appeared to set the world around them on fire the night was pitch black. No stars, no moon, nothing to go by.

Paul seemed to guess where his thoughts were leading him because he suddenly grabbed his shoulders, wet hands digging into where his shirt lay flat against his skin – the linen heavy and cold with water.  
  
“Do you trust me?”  
  
Blue eyes implored brown.

There was no question about this. Not for Hugh.

“Always.”  
  
“Then take her starboard.”  
  
Hugh's mouth opened and then closed again, his lips eventually thinning in determination as he nodded.  
  
“I will man the nest. When I give you the sign, you will set her on a straight course again as best as you can.”  
  
Hugh nearly choked on his breath as those words made it to him through a clap of thunder.  
  
His response was immediate. “No!”  
  
He would not permit it. There was good reason why the crow's nest was emptied during a tempest. Under no circumstances would he allow Paul to go up there now.  
Unfortunately for him though, if there was one thing he should have learned about the other man it was that he was nothing if not stubborn.  
  
“I'll have it easier to navigate us from up there.”  
  
Suddenly there was another flash of light and that's when Hugh saw it. Paul's eyes were brilliant and alive and wild like the sea around them. His hair stuck to his face, rain flowing down from it in rivers. His jaw was set and his whole body was buzzing with energy. He was alert, he was ready.  
  
Paul was in his element out here. And he was entirely beautiful like this.  
  
Right then and there Hugh knew he couldn't hold him back. He had fallen in love with a man who was willing to risk his own life - not for glory, but for the sake of this ship and its crew. And Hugh could do nothing but let him go.

“Please take care.”  
  
Amid the violent gusts of wind and against all odds his quietly uttered plea reached Paul, a smile crinkling the skin around an ocean blue gaze that very second.  
  
“Aye, captain.” The glow in his features was almost infectious, the warmth of his lips as he stole a chaste kiss before running off to the mast stirring a new-found hope in Hugh that they would indeed master this one like they had mastered other storms before.  
  
If anyone could get them to a safe harbour it was Paul. And oddly Hugh couldn't be more proud of and more in love with this man than he was right this instant.


End file.
